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Seven Years Old and Kicked Out of Beijing

Seven Years Old and Kicked Out of Beijing

By JAVIER C. HERNÁNDEZ FEB. 14, 2018

This is Ding Shanshan. Her friends, her family and her pet turtle all live in Beijing. It’s the only home she has ever known.

But Shanshan, 7, and her family are no longer welcome in the Chinese capital. The government is kicking out tens of thousands of families with roots in rural China to “beautify” the Communist Party’s flagship city.

Entire neighborhoods have been leveled in a wave of forced evictions.

I met the Ding family just as they had settled on a plan: They were going to leave Beijing and return to the countryside.

For Shanshan that would mean one of the longest trips of her life.

The family set out during Lunar New Year, a time when hundreds of millions of people return to their rural hometowns.

We boarded a train bound for Henan Province in central China. Shanshan ate sunflower seeds and played video games to pass the time.

When we arrived in Henan, Shanshan and her family paraded down the streets in a tractor. They spent more than $32 at a supermarket, buying pork, yogurt and strawberries.

Henan was lively and unrestrained. Children skidded down the icy sidewalks on cardboard boxes. Men played rowdy games of poker on the street.

Soon after the family arrived in Henan, the magnitude of the decision struck Shanshan. Already, she said, she missed her friends and grandparents back in Beijing.

Her father, Ding Fei, knows the transition will be difficult. “We had no choice but to leave,” he said.

With Lunar New Year approaching, the family reminisced with neighbors about local traditions, like slaughtering pigs, lighting fireworks and hanging decorations.

On their first night back, the family ate noodles — a favorite food.

The following morning, Shanshan’s mother, Fang Juan, brushed her daughter’s hair, just as she did in Beijing.

“Here, in our hometown, we have our own place,” Shanshan’s father said. “It can't be demolished.”

Javier C. Hernández is a China correspondent for The New York Times based in Beijing.